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KotORCG The Sith
Reference Book: Star Wars Saga Edition Knights of the Old Republic Campaign Guide Affiliation Pages: The Sith, The Sith Empire Peace is a lie, there is only passion. Through passion, I gain strength. Through strength, I gain power. Though power, I gain victory. Through victory, my chains are broken. The Force shall free me. -The Code of The Sith The story of The Sith goes back one hundred thousand years, eons before even the rise of The Old Republic or The Jedi. The Sith were a people who called the world Korriban home. But around the year 28,000 BBY, the archetypal model of ambition rises to power among them. This inflexible Sith ruler unites his world into a single kingdom, and claims the titles of both monarch and god of his people. History calls him King Adas, but according to legend, The Force bristows on him a different name: Sith'ari- the perfect being. Three thousand years before the founding of the Republic, Adas' hegemony is invaded by The Infinite Empire, an immensely powerful interstellar nation. Here, later Sith would say, they prove their right to rule the galaxy. Outsmarting the technologically superior invaders, Adas conquers the conquerors, sacrificing his life in the process. With the aliens' technology, The Sith prosper, colonizing nearby worlds and even banishing a group of pureblooded Sith as far away as Tund. But there is a greater gift The Infinite Empire bequeathed to The Sith- The Dark Side of The Force. Eventually, The Sith are again visited by aliens, this time by Dark Jedi exiled in the Hundred-Year Darkness. These exiles, initially called Jen'jidai in the Sith tongue, easily conquer the reigning Sith overlord, earning their leader Ajunta Pall the title Jen'ari or "Dark Lord" of the Sith. Though a number of these Sith conquerors follow their leaders back to Republic space for revenge against The Jedi, many stay to interbreed with The Sith by alchemical means. For the next two thousand years, Jedi blood mixes with Sith, breeding out feeble characteristics of each Species- such as superstition, sympathy, and loyalty- while sharpening desirable qualities such as ambition, cunning, and raw power in The Force. At last, around the year 5,000 BBY, The Sith Empire, led by the Dark Lord Naga Sadow, is ready and invades Republic space. Because of treason, the Sith campaign fails, and special enforcers called Jedi Shadows zealously eradicate every last vestige of The Sith they find. But in a twist of irony, a few short centuries later, the Jedi Knight Freedon Nadd finds two Sith relics the Shadows missed. Taking instruction from both King Adas' Holocron and Sadow's disembodied spirit, Nadd becomes a Dark Lord. In turn, he inculcates the Jedi Exar Kun into The Sith creed, consequently bringing the Republic to its knees as Kun's Brotherhood of the Sith instigates The Great Sith War. Kun's Brotherhood is defeated, and in another blow, The Mecrosa Order, a long-time Sith bastion, overplays its hand in the Tapani Sector and is completely annihilated in The Cleansing of the Nine Houses. Still, The Sith need never fear extinction again. From the seed of Kun's conversion comes a host of Jedi followers, and after his death, his acolytes scatter throughout the galaxy with the teachings of The Sith ancients. Timeline The following events describe the state of The Sith during The Old Republic Era. The Restoration and The Mandalorian Wars 3,995-3,960 BBY Though the forces of The Jedi and The Old Republic manage to throw back the combined forces of The Sith and The Krath during The Great Sith War, many followers of The Sith remain loyal to their ways. As the Republic rebuilds and subsequently engages The Mandalorians in a bloody war of attrition, remnants of The Sith Empire, some on worlds completely unknown to the Republic, continue to practice their dark arts in secret. Though they remain scattered and unable to mount a serious effort to regroup, Sith loyalists, fallen Jedi, and the descendants of powerful leaders in Exar Kun's Sith Empire await their chance to rebuild the mighty Sith Empire. The Jedi Civil War 3,959-3,956 BBY They do not have to wait long, for soon Darth Revan and Darth Malak appear, resurrecting The Sith Empire in a Jedi Civil War. Returning from The Unknown Regions following The Mandalorian Wars, the two Sith Lords engage in a lightning-fast campaign to reestablish The Sith Empire and reclaim conquered worlds. Among the first planets retaken by The Sith is Korriban, which becomes one of the most important locations in The Sith Empire and houses the academy where new Sith leaders are trained. With The Star Forge producing huge amounts of Starships, Vehicles, and weapons at all times, The Sith are able to resurrect their Empire in a matter of months. At the height of The Jedi Civil War, The Sith Empire covers nearly one-third of the known galaxy, with many worlds hotly contested between The Old Republic and The Sith Empire. Some worlds join The Sith Empire willingly, while others are taken by force. Dozens if not hundreds of Sith apprentices learn the ways of The Dark Side of The Force, and a few even rise to the rank of Sith Master, training students of their own. With legions of armored troops spreading throughout the galaxy, all led by masters of The Force, The Sith Empire seems unstoppable. Betrayal spells the undoing of Revan's glorious, if short-lived, Sith Empire. At the moment The Jedi capture them, Darth Revan's own apprentice attempts to seize control, firing on Revan's flagship. Though The Sith Empire continues to grow for some months under the control of the traitorous Darth Malak, eventually the redeemed Revan slays their former apprentice and shatters the backbone of the reborn Sith Empire. The Jedi Civil War comes to an end as the once-unified Sith Empire fragments into dozens of smaller territories. The Dark Wars 3,955-3,951 BBY The Sith Empire crumbles, and within months former Sith Lords have declared themselves the masters of much smaller domains. As The Sith squabble among themselves, fighting over the scraps of The Sith Empire, Darth Sion and Darth Nihilus engage in a campaign to wipe out The Jedi, with great success. Thanks to the foolish ambitions of the Jedi Atris, Nihilus is able to wipe out almost all of the remaining Jedi, leaving only a small handful alive. The skirmishes between the Sith warlords continue for nearly four years until Darth Sion and Nihilus attempt to reunite The Sith under a single banner of strong leadership. Any hope for resurrecting The Sith Empire is undone by a lone surviving Jedi, and when The Jedi Order is rebon The Sith fade back into the shadows, not to be seen again in force for many years. Using The Sith One quality that has allowed The Sith to survive after so many millennia is their ability to adapt. This era in particular presents a gamut of Sith incarnations. The Sith operating at this time fall into the following general categories: Imperialists, Traditionalists, Secret Societies, and Remnants. Each offers unique gaming opportunities. Imperialists Affiliation Page: The Sith Empire The reinvented Sith Empire of Darth Revan and Darth Malak is a massive galaxy-threatening organization on par with The Galactic Empire of the original Star Wars trilogy. This version of The Sith has it all, from huge battleships and starfighters to countless shocktroopers of both the "Normal" and Force-using variety. They even have a Death Star-like superweapon, in the form of The Star Forge. Technology and military engagements naturally play a major role for these Sith, since a show of overwhelming force is a prized strategy. Nonetheless, this revised Sith Empire has not abandoned its supernatural roots, training an army of acolytes in an academy on the ancient Sith homeworld Korriban. At the height of its power, The Sith Empire is much like The Old Republic in that it is highly organized and has the ability to wage an effective war against its enemies. Despite the inherently traitorous nature of The Sith, The Sith Empire's hierarchy is surprisingly rigid, and has a rank structure that ensures that all war efforts do not suffer from infighting. At the top of the command structure are the two most prominent Sith Lords, Darth Revan and Darth Malak (Though Malak assumes sole control of The Sith Empire after betraying his master). A number of Sith Lords serve under the two most prominent masters, including Darth Bandon. Each being that achieves the full title of Dark Lord of the Sith is given control over some military or civilian assets; many Sith Lords are placed in charge of entire fleets or battalions, while others serve as the rulers of captured worlds. In many respects, the Sith Lords are above and beyond the normal rank structure, and they have the final authority over admirals, commanders, and entire sector governments. In many ways, the Sith Lords are comparable to the Moffs of The Galactic Empire. The Sith Navy consists of all of the military Starships under the control of The Sith Empire. The Sith Navy is further subdivided into fleets, some of which are large enough to patrol an entire sector effectively. Each fleet is under the control of an admiral, like Saul Karath, though these admirals in turn answer to a Sith Lord. Fleets are further subdivided into battle groups, which usually consist of five to ten Capital Ships and various support craft. The descending order of ranks among the Sith Navy are admiral, vice admiral, commodore, captain, major, and lieutenant. All nonofficer personnel aboard Starships in the Sith Navy are Sith troopers or specially assigned crewmembers, such as students from the Sith Academy on Korriban joining a crew for a special assignment. Though there is no formal Sith Army, the ground forces of The Sith Empire are an entity all on their own. Used not only in ground warfare but also in the occupation, policing, and pacification of captured worlds, Sith troopers and their officers fall directly under the command of the Sith Lords they serve. While aboard ships of the Sith Navy they are under the command of the captain of the ship they serve on, but once planetside they report either to the Sith Lord ruling that planet or to the Sith Lord in command of the military efforts in the region. The highest-ranking Sith officers are commanders, who outrank colonels and lieutenants. Among the Sith troopers, there are truly only two designations: troopers and commandos, though neither truly outranks the other. Lieutenants and colonels in command of squads handle the front-line efforts of Sith trooper squads, reporting up the chain of command to colonels who apprise Sith Lords of ongoing situations and ensure the Sith Lords' commands are carried out. Traditionalists Exar Kun and Ulic Qel-Droma's Brotherhood of the Sith and The Sorcerers of Tund are both Sith traditions that rely significantly on the more esoteric and mystical practices of their ancient order. Adventures involving these groups carry a greater "Fantasy" flavor, with arcane Dark Side powers and talismans, Sith swords, and alchemically created monsters at every turn. In contrast to the faceless empire of Revan and Malak, The Brotherhood of the Sith is represented by a handful of tightly knit dark siders with an egalitarian methodology. The Brotherhood uses technological and military elements, but these are deemphasized in favor of Force Powers and Sith Talismans. Secret Societies The Sith Triumvirate and The Mecrosa Order are two examples of Sith secret societies, similar to The Sith in the Star Wars prequels. The most prevalent tools of this class of Sith are secrecy, deception, and patience. Like a disease, they conquer from the inside and work from the small scale to the grand design. They reveal themselves only after calculated planning, in the meantime using their resources to quietly dismantle their enemies and sow chaos with precision strikes. The Sith Triumvirate carries out the genocide of The Jedi Order through subterfuge and assassination, but The Mecrosa Order uses its Sith sparingly to intimidate, persuade, and murder key rivals until such time as they can establish their total domination. Remnants The Sith fall into diasporas at the immediate conclusion of both The Great Sith War and The Jedi Civil War. These Sith scatter to the cosmic winds, setting up their own petty kingdoms on distant worlds or fighting one another to claim the title of new Dark Lord. Still, even a small-time Sith can be big-time trouble for characters on a mission to eliminate the Sith remnants one Dark Side follower at a time. These Sith are violent, opportunistic, and protective of whatever power they have been able to consolidate. Some even have dreams of returning The Sith to their former glory, recruiting under the guise of disenchanted and charismatic Jedi Knights. The Legions of the Sith See also: Sith Empire Nonheroic Units, Sith Nonheroic Units The Sith Empire (And all affiliated groups) make use of a large number of agents, both specialized and general. The following generic characters can be used to flesh out encounters featuring The Sith as enemies, particularly those set during The Jedi Civil War. Sith Paraphernalia The Sith have a wide variety of paraphernalia that they use when making war on the Republic. The following pieces of equipment can be commonly found in the Sith arsenal: Sith Tremor Sword: A Sith Tremor Sword is a deadly throwback to the blades wielded by the ancient Sith Lords of Ziost. Sith Tremor Swords are Dire Vibroblades with the Cortosis Weave General Template. Sith War Sword: The prized weapons of ancient Sith Lords, the Sith War Sword is an incredibly sharp blade treated with ancient Sith Alchemy to produce a deadly weapon. Sith War Swords are War Swords with the Sith Alchemical Weapon Template. Sith Trooper Armor: Designed by the onboard computers of The Star Forge and replicated millions of times over, Sith Trooper Armor is silver multi-piece plating worn over a sealed black body glove, with a helmet incorporating a Comlink, Blast Shield, and Helmet Package. Statistically, it is identical to Stormtrooper Armor. Agents of Evil See also: Sith Empire Heroic Units, Sith Heroic Units The Sith are more than just faceless legions intent on conquering the galaxy. The following collection of individuals, many of them Dark Lords of the Sith, represent some of the most influential Sith in this time period. Starships See also: Sith Empire Vehicles Though most of the ships used by The Sith Empire are based on designs stolen from the Republic, the following Starships are emblematic of The Sith Empire's war machine. Also note that many vessels used by The Old Republic, both in The Mandalorian Wars and The Jedi Civil War, may be stolen by The Sith Empire and replicated using The Star Forge. Starfighters Space Transports Capital Ships Droids The following Droids can be found throughout The Sith Empire, particularly during The Jedi Civil War period and later.